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Author Topic: Whisperwhip: a megabeast steakhouse (Circus Edition)  (Read 135765 times)

Immortal-D

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #75 on: December 12, 2014, 09:33:14 pm »

Yay, I got promoted! :D

Taupe; Good news, you're squad leader now.
Me; Is it my awesome fighting prowess, or rugged beard?
Taupe; You're the only one left.
Me; So I only got promoted b/c I'm popular?
Taupe; Pretty much
Me;  .... Woohoo, I'm popular!

I have to ask; Did you actually forget to lock the doors, or was that just for !FUN!?

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #76 on: December 12, 2014, 10:22:50 pm »

At first I assumed they were opened because some thieves unlocked them, then I realized I never actually locked the doors in the first place. Like, ever.
...oups.

Also congratulation on your new title! Your new chamber is twice as big as your old one. EVERYTHING in it is made of palm. i hope you like palm, cause I'm too lazy to change the furnitures.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2014, 10:28:04 pm by Taupe »
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Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #77 on: December 13, 2014, 10:03:57 pm »

Hey, look at this, the fort just turned 20 years old!

To celebrate, I updated the map on DFMA. Sadly I had to redo all the points of interest. Is there any way to transfer those between versions of the same map?

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-12339-whisperswhips

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #78 on: December 16, 2014, 12:10:22 am »

CHAPTER 39: Immortal-D: bird-puncher
End of 116

I call a small meeting in my quarters, and invite Dumat, the mayor, and my sister Kel. We spend a few moments discussing the duke problem. Tun has clearly gone mad with power. He may be a tool, but he is now a very influencial one. To the citizens, he represents an everyday dwarf who rose to power through hard work and perseverance. A symbol to all that despite the war and bloodsheds, each and everyone of them could one day become a legend.

Well, he used to be. now they are just scared shitless of him.

-We can make him happy, suggest Kel.
-With what, querns? mocks the broker
-Oh, yes! maybe pretter querns will stop him from doing the whole, hum, headsplosion thing. I'll get right to it, sir!

Sis leaves, enthusiastic, and makes her way to the workshops. I'm not certain that ''pretty querns'' will solve all our problems, tho. Dumat, the mayor and i start discussing how deeply fucked we are right now.

-With so many dead stoneworkers dead in the recent years, we are going to face some serious issues, I tell them.
-Welcome to 15 fucking years of my life, Dumat says. the only way the querns will be produced on time is if we have a clear backlog of tasks. And with so little miners still alive, that means basically starting no new projects whatsoever.
-Well, the mayor starts, I was working on a plan to maybe secure the caverns. but that would involve using more miners to excavate more stone pillars.
-Yeah, hum, about that, Dumat says...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''I'm told a miner woman was clumsy enough to produce another cave-in this morning. she injured her hand and her working arm, stupid fool. General I know you want me to supervise them, but they are beyond hope.
-So that's one less worker for the time being. great.
-Well to be honest, the broker says, why don't we put some soldiers to work asie from military duty? don't we have like, a fuckton of them?
-No.

I have 6 squad, most of them close to full, but one is still made of rookies, and we'll need them to be ready to fill the other squads once they get enough experience. My own squad and Immortal-D's are in charge of covering the caverns and killing forgotten beasts, Mistem's squad is now mostly blind and not of much use anyway. Asmel's team is in charge of chasing bandits, and her subordinate squad is in charge of holding the wall, patrolling the fort, and killing sieges. They use their free days to relax and heal, and i cannot have them doing some brewing or cutting rocks on the side. I need all my men. Overcrowded military ranks are a pain to our growth, but we hold our lives to the sheer numbers of men defending this place.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Look at this''

The mayor produces a plan for an expansion to the catacombs. The design looks intriguing, and much fancier than the plain rooms we used for the entrance sections. According to Led's bookkeeping, we have exactly one coffin left before the crypts are filled to capacity. This new wing is neat, but who will dig it?

-That's the problem, general. Nobody. We aint got much miners anymore. I ordered this started about a month ago and nobody even got close to looking at the plans yet!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''One of our few remaining miners is busy working on a personal project. Artifact quality, for sure. a gift to impress the noble liasons, no doubt to gain a low nobility title. Beautiful as it may be, I'm not sure artifact grates are what we need them to be doing right now
-Hum, agreed.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Oh, and we are out of copper'' complains manager Stukos as he barges into my office. ''And potash, and buckets. and wood, for that matter.
-That I can sort out in a few days, says Dumat. Trust me, i have a plan to get more wood that will free our woodcutters and deliver it straight to our carpenter's door.
-I'm not sure how you would achieve that, says Stukos.
-Just, yaknow, wait and see.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Speaking of wait and see, tho, it would be fucking great if our hunters could do a better job at tracking down those fucking elk birds before they run into the fortress. I've found some dead in BASE1, some in the magma forge for fuck sake. either ignore them or send the soldiers after the birds, so i can train the hunters as the next generation of miners
-Dumat, last time I gave you free rein over our hunters, you turned their leader into a quern-loving megalomaniac.
-Oh come one, don't blame me for Tun. Nobles are nobles, they all go rotten sooner or later.


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Speaking of which, the mayor says, the Lavender empire Law-Giver wanted to speak with me. Maybe I should get to that.
-did you tell him you were in a meeting?
-Not really, he asked to talk to me in autumn, been running after me ever since.
-Ugh, eyerolls dumat, you are the single worsest mayor. Also don't trust him, he works for fucking Quula of all people.

The mayor leaves, Stukos goes to delete all uneeded work orders, hoping people will be able to build querns in time now. Dumat claims he has some business to attend as well, and disappears to his own machinations. He is an efficient fellow, and having him back on board sure has lightened my workload, but i swear he is reckless, secretive, and possibly dangerous at times.

My thoughts wander, and I find myself thinking about dumat's imprisonment. He was apparently building a device to flood the queen's chamber with magma, claiming she was a witch or something.

Tun is living in those same chambers now. I wonder...?

...Immortal-D barges into my office, clearly proud to announce that his new uniform was in order. Now garbed in steel, with the highest quality leather garments underneath, he looked the part of a true milicia captain.

-General! I wait my orders!
-Well, your job is really just to stand watch over BASE1, but since I'm stilll severely injured, maybe you could...
-Yes?
-Immortal-D, the task i will now bestow upon you is crucial, and can only be undertaken by our most...popular... dwaf. yes, that's it. that's why i haven't asked anyone else yet.
-Anything, general!
-Ok, i need you to go downstairs and, erh, kill the elk birds. Like all of them.
-YES! I will do that. Holy shit, it means I'm popular!

ID is so excited, he leaves and forget his many weapons. which would explain the various reports he sends me in the following days.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Hi general!

Attacked the elk birds as you wanted. They aren't very dangerous. Anyhow, I may have forgotten my crosbow and sword at your place? I'm punching the birds for now''


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Hi again!

My stand against the infamous birds continues, general! I'm so glad you chose me to lead this new war against terror and I guess avian super-flu? My men and I killed 3 more of the elk birds today. None of my men have died horribly yet.''


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Oh no!

I know why you sent me here now, I now have proff possibly maybe that the pod grabbers and the elk birds have formed and unholy alliance. When we killed two birds, the pond grabbers fled south to gather reinforcements''

Meanwhile, i receive words that someone on the surface spoted and sliced up a titan. giant surface monster reports are getting more and more casual over the years.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Unlike those from down below. Oh, look, more fucking elk birds.

''Holy shit,

I knew it, the pond grabbers recruited more elk birds to fight us out of the water. I stopped their advances... for now. still looking for my weapons, too busy to go back upstairs. I'm using a elk birds as a weapon for now. catten almost joined a fight, i think he is mad I took his place. and possibly his elk bird?

Hey catten did you call dibs on that elk bird carcass already? wait why am i writting that down"


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Oh dear god it never ends!''

I'm starting to dismiss Immortal-D's report when I stumble upon this one:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

''Hi general!

So after you set me here to war against the infamous Elk bird army, I discovered their leader, an enormous bird-like creature weighting 24 tons. It seems to undulate rhytmically, no doubt to create ripples over the water with which to send hidden messages to it's pond grabber followers. Will attempt to punch it, wish me luck''


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
First I misread the combat reports, and don't notice something crucial: not only has a lion engaged the terrifying bird (or what ever the fuck a weevil is?), but it seems that a cook, some animals, and an engraver/miner/stoneworker/mason have been ambushed by a spider.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Terrible news, general!

A giant spider lurked into the caverns and ambushed two civilians as we evacuated the perimeter around the elk bird king. We unleashed a lion to hold the bird while we tracked down the spider. It seems the two civilians were bitten by a venomous bite.


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The miner only managed to break a leg before the spider, which we called Omesesh (or crushspun) made a run for our base. The stoneworker is dead, and the cook managed to avoid the webs but died from the poison before he could run too far.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Good news, tho, I stationned Hammer Lord Stukos to intercept any wildbeast, and he headshotted Crushspun before it could enter the base. now, to fight the elk king''

Uggh, more dead miners, now my plans to kill tun with a giant magma chute can be considered a GIZIP. While I await the next report, I decide to adress some minor problems coming from another section of the mine shaft

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
A few naked mole dog are interrupting our newest miner, a farmer. The lad is trying to repel the creature by slapping it with an axe. Yes, this is how smart our workers are. When equipped with a giant blade, their first guess is to use it as a gentle club.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I order the farmer to step aside. My body is still hurting from all the repeated full-body incineration from a few months back, but combat comes naturally to me, like jumping back on a bycycle made of mass-slaughter. I proceed to break as many bones as I can on this naked mole dog.

My motto is ''You don't truly know someone until you've destroyed every bone in his body'' this maybe why I dont have many close friends among my fellow dwarves. I return, and a child messenger brings me the final report from Immortal-D's expedition

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
''Ok, so...

We've been tracking down the elk bird king alongside the river for days now. He seems to be spending most of his time wandering the river, and we can't reach them. Saw more pond grabbers moving around, obviously the longer we leave the king alive, the more reinforcements he will summons. I asked the miners to free some space by removing the stone pillars, but all the miners I talked to were either dead or cooks who were also dead.


Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
It finally emerged after a few days of behaving weirdly. by that point, Doren the unburnt was the closest to it, as I sprayed the men around to cover the various river exits. He managed to keep the beast busy while we joined the fight. I am proud to announce that my mission is a success, and we are rid of the elk birds for now!

PS: have you found my weapons?''

While this was going on, the fort had turned 20 years old. a true achievement, for any dwarven settlement, considering how explosive some colonies tend to be. While we may lack industries, or an actual monarch, the fort has plenty of fierce soldiers, great booze, and a bunch of furnitures decorated with the bones of our enemies. A fine thing if I may say so.

Spring goes by smoothly, with a few good news. immortal-D is back from his cavern mission, which turned out to be much more than just punching chickens. He also retrieved his weapons from my office. Manager Stukos has successfully completed the newest quern mandate. He's also glad to announce that Dumat managed to secure about 50 pieces of wood, and put them in the storage pile already.

''Oh, I simply told the elves I would trade them all their wooden logs for our 4000 bolts. As bow users, they told me they wanted nothing to do with our bolts. I told them ''That's right, you want nothing to do with them'' so I agreed to remove the bolts from the trade, and i just took their wood for free. Made sure they knew to bring more of it as tribute next year, cause otherwise we were gonna offer them the bolts again. Very convenient how the depot is right next to the wooden piles now, we dont need to cut or haul it anymore.''

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Meanwhile, Kel has been working on some marvelous bone works recently, such as this one. Creating an artifact drum certainly made her a great crafter. some of her items turned simple objects into beautiful pieces worth up to a thousand dwarfbucks.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Her namesake apparently encircled a gem with bone. While it is a pretty item dedicated to our previous general, I can't help but think someone took the instructions too litterally. I guess something along the lines of this occured:

''Hey what should we be doing with those ones?
-encrust them on some items, like whatever furnitures is closest on the pile.
-well, technically, this random gem from the jeweler bench IS the closest thing to me right now, so...''

I'm not an expert, but aren't you suposed to socket the gem INTO something, and not the other way around? I decide to put it in the barracks to honor my predecessor. I'd ask for the gem to be encrusted into something, but I'm afraid someone would just get confused, and build a fucking chair around it or something.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Meanwhile, other crafters are adding bones to items that didn't really need them much, such as this floor bag. The same crafter also worked on a quern. Not the greatest of art, so i doubt that will be enough to keep Tun under check.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yet at this very moment, Kel shows me another quern, her true masterpiece. The quern itself is of great quality, and every bone decoration works together to create a true piece of art. In the middle of it all, a depiction of our goddess, Kadol, admiring the quern she is on.

''This is what I've been practicing for. I called it Kadol admiring a quern. do you think the duke will like it?
-Yes, sister, it is truly beautiful. You may have saved more life than you could know with this thing. This will keep tun happy for a long time.

I may not have to encase you in obsidian after all...


Spoiler: OOC note (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: December 16, 2014, 12:17:37 am by Taupe »
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Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #79 on: December 18, 2014, 07:35:46 pm »

Quick note about the fort: I'm currently running (ruining?) the happy go lucky fun ride that is Doomforest, and salvaging this disaster is going to take a lot of time, especially with the holliday thing. Once this is done, I'm supposed to take a turn over in some sort of Warlock brooding simulator, which I'm told is really hard to play for clueless people with no experience. I'm sure it will work super fine.

Scratch the second part, Doomforest was quite the adventure, and took way more time than I could ever expect. Once this was done, all I could manage was a turn in !DRUNK FORTRESS!. If you want to know what my storytelling looks like once you replace elaborate description by booze-fueled incoherent metaphors, why don't you go take a look at the baffling unadventures of Lord Mr. Tacos?

Whisperwhip should be back in January.

EDIT: But probably late in January. My 4-years-old HP laptop has reached the absolute end of it's life cycle. (aka: it litterally melts from just browsing this forum). I'm in the process of building a new desktop, but it's taking a while, because nothing ships on holidays or during the weekends, because this is apparently still 1920. Most of the framerate issues should sort themselves out for the time being once I run the game on a decent computer.We may not have to fill the dumpatorium and most of the surface with magma.

We will do it regardless of necessity, obviously.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2015, 10:22:31 pm by Taupe »
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SkaiaMechanic

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #80 on: January 13, 2015, 05:35:30 pm »

Taupe, I've been reading this thread off my cellphone whenever I had a moment or two to spare. I recently caught up with it.
Fantastic story. I'm still surprised you didn't try some hair-brained scheme to kill the deity/demon ruler of nations when you had the chance.

Looking forward to seeing this continue!
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I'm running out of dogs. I'm running out of bolts.
I'm running out of dwarves.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #81 on: January 13, 2015, 05:54:25 pm »

Oh, plans were in motion, but we have zero productivity in this fort. Shit usually just vanish mysteriously before my contingencies to deal with it are up and running. Quula, the queen, and with them a potential undead apocalypse... All gone before the big showdown. Even the FPS issue is going to sort itself outside of the game.

...The fortress is stagnant and slowly rotting away nevertheless. All the best workers are dead. Soon I'll have to disband armies and put them to work. What a disgrace.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2015, 06:13:36 pm by Taupe »
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Salmeuk

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #82 on: January 13, 2015, 07:20:01 pm »

Hey, look at this, the fort just turned 20 years old!

To celebrate, I updated the map on DFMA. Sadly I had to redo all the points of interest. Is there any way to transfer those between versions of the same map?

http://mkv25.net/dfma/map-12339-whisperswhips

Just in case you have failed to answer your own question, if you check the 'POI Sharing' box when creating a new POI, it will appear on all future related maps. Obviously it's best used for more permanent fortress features, and too many shared POI's inundate the list with repetitive locations - moderation is key.
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Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #83 on: January 13, 2015, 07:49:42 pm »

Thanks a bunch, Salmeuk! I was still looking for an answer. Thankfully, the fort doesn't exactly change much, so most POI should remain constant and relevant.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #84 on: January 15, 2015, 04:31:43 am »

CHAPTER 40: Necromancers have feelings too!

Greeting, fine folks! It has been about a month since we had any story update, and sadly my computer parts's shipment is turning into a clusterfuck, which spells an awful lot of delays. In the meantime, I delved deeper in Legend Mode, so why don't we all take some time to learn more about the strange characters populating the Windy Realm?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Let's start with the realm's original Quula. Her portfolio is rather off-putting. She is associated with death, suicide, blight and diseases, she is a rotting carcass with a creepy and discusting title, and somehow, she is also the goddess of happiness. And daydreaming. A strange combination if i ever saw one, however, as we dig deeper down, we will see much more of this dichotomy surrounding death.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The first thing I decide to check is this legendary ''Tactical Hill''. Many of the pre-skypig migrants and founders endured a war there. right off the bat you know something went down, because elven kings are dying and elfs are eating humans, while Quula/Ukas is wandering around slaughtering dudes.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yet, a few years later, a human necromancer by the name of Ohe Closebrain shows up in the Tacticall Hill, and reanimate the elves killed specifically by Quula herself. For what end, I cannot tell.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
My curiosity shifts toward the lavender empire. While the Citadel of clutches is pretty unremarkable, save for it's monarchy, the human civilisation in the north is rather special. In the year 4, Ukas the giraffe fiend appears as a goddes, and usurps the leadership of the empire. Soon after, the Lavender Empire enters a war with the Apes of Crowning, one of the various elven civilizations. This first war ends with a peace treaty signed quickly by the elves. Quula turns her attention to Soothedslapped, a newly founded tower. When I embarked, SoothedSlapped was home to Quula, and a handful of humans. This is her private retreat, close to the empire, but filled with emptiness.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The peace treaty allows the human to create more settlements near the elven borders. This is not enough for the Lavender Empire, however, as many attacks are soon declared. The elven cities are pillaged, and the population turned into slaves. They will be used to build the many roads, tombs and keeps that will turn the Lavender Empire into a mighty civilization.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The following decades see more wars being declared, but they are quickly ended by peace treaties. Signs of elven rebellions being quenched, no doubt. Some seek to liberate their fellow clanmates from slavery, but the might and infrastructure of the Empire, combined with the powers of Quula herself cannot be challenged.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
What follows is a rather smooth period of building and infrastructure centralisation. Roads, bridges and cathedrals are completed after years of elven labor.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
After almost a century, the humans notice a settlement on the northern continent. Dwarves. Why are they here? It is clear that these newcomers have problems of their own. The travellers speak of a young dwarven heroine who took arms and slayed three mighty titans to save her cat. The dwarves of the Wilted Sack seem resilient, and well-defended, and soon adopt a very militaristic approach. With tales of a mighty monster-slayer, and a well-defended position, Quula is wary of fighting those short, strange individuals. For reasons unknown, the dwarves request nothing but wood, which come cheap to an empire that took over the elven lands. In return, the dwarves offer gems and rock crafts with no regard to their actual value (oh, and a truckload of rags to dress up the slaves!). A trade route is established, for mercantilism is much simpler than warfare when dealing with Whisperwhip.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I always assumed that Quula came to see us because she wanted to raise corpses, or meet the queen and take her as a pupil. In 114, she shows up at our doorstep and starts to stalk the mayor. This is exactly one century after she appeared in the elven lands. Could this have any meaning? she also resigned from her seat as empress, or law-giver as she named the title.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Could there be more to Quula the giraffe fiend than I know?

First, she was the first of her kind. she is associated with murder, war, death and fortresses. This is all in line with her attitude as empress. she wared the elves, killed them, and used the survivors to build a mighty society. I always pictured Quula as basically the devil. Her title of ''Law-Giver Giraffe fiend certainly didnt help here. In my head, she was sitting on a throne all day, sacrificing orphans and eating babies while murdering people left and right. also tricking people into selling their souls.

Yet it seems that Quula/Ukas has been exploring the world a lot. yes, as she finally exits the underworld, she uses her powers to hijack a small group of humans and slowly shape them into a force to be reckoned with. But as the years pass, she wars less and less, and begins exploring the world, taming various animals, and visiting exotic locations.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
She also begins to write artifact books. (more on them later) Those tomes are stored in her personal tower, SoothedSlapped, to which she returns after her journeys. Ok, yeah, she also kills a whole bunch of elves. I skip a page here, just assume more elves die.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
years pass, and quula continues writing books, with some travels and elf-slaying along the way. Then after a century among humans, and elves, she visits the dwarves in Whisperwhip, and resign. The humans are finally in control of their own empire, which their deity of happiness and general gruesomeness forged for them. The giraffe fiend spends 2 years with the dwarves, then leave. No one knows where she went, but she isn't dead.  For a god of death and murder leading armies, she has a kill count of about 35.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Enough with demons, let's take a look at the royal family. Coq Floorquest is another strange character. Her necromantic powers were something I feared. but she never reached Whisperwhip. she is, however, still alive somwhere, doing her own thing. She was the first of her kind, and her husband died after 17 years. that must have been quite a tragedy. Then shortly after, some of her children die as well. However, in 74, she hears that by defiling a sacred place, her eldest daughter and heir to the throne achieved eternal life, albeit in a cursed form. shortly after, she becomes a necromancer. Is she trying to save her heir? Is she drive by jealousy?

Perhaps she is simply shocked by her days in the windy realm, and seeks a way to stop her loved ones from dying. She has achieved this somehow. yet instead of ruling from her new awesome fortress in the north, or bestowing immortality to those close to her, she instead chose to exile herself and disappear.

What have you discovered, Cog Floorquest? What was the price you paid for immortality, that somehow made your entire kingdom irrelevant?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Meanwhile, we have the heir apparent, a vampiress, currently on the run from various dwarven settlements after her clumsy murders aroused suspiscion. for the last 30 years, she has been undercover in theathershake, her true identity and nature still a secret. Maybe that's the key here. By the time queen cog ad mastered necromancy, her daughter was already gone, unwilling to break her cover. Her mother must have agents looking for her since then, yet none found her yet. Could the whole thing happening in the north be a decoy? It is possible that moving the capital to the faraway Whisperwhip was just a ruse, giving the queen time to disappear and look for her daughter, while claiming that she was travelling to the northern continent.

Interesting fact, before being cursed, Princess Kumil led the Cult of bronze, a religion devoted to Kadol, of which the Bronze General was an important member, along with his sister Kel.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I decide to browse the vampire's descendants. her great-granddaughter is currently living in our fort. she is the wife of the engraver/mason/miner that was executed recently. Still, the queen's great-great-great-granddaughter was born 2 years ago, meaning that Somehow, if the queen was to die as well as the vampire, the throne would go to Ral's parent, then to her, then to her daughter Ducim.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Finally, i promised we would look over the books! Ukas Archescort is using the pen name Quula, and her first book is about the tactical hill where she led her military campains as empress. She sounds like a serious and vicious individual.

She then writes a tome about the giraffe Fiend's practices, altho there is yet a single giraffe fiend, herself. it's almost like she is trying to consolidate her sense of identity.

She writes about her enemies, the elf, and produces a 237 pages biography on one of them, by far her longest book. She is studying the humans from up-close, but most of her book relate to the elves and their lands.

Ukas Archescort creates Hell, a book made of forgotten beast leather, depicting tales of the underworld. This is the single most metal artifact ever created right there.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Fifty years after her escape from the underworld, Quula creates another book about the elven lands, this one a more flattering work than the precedent.

At this point, quula just doesn't give a fuck anymore about her disguise, or the tricks that got her to be named empress. she writes an autobiography of Ukas Archescort the ferocious Nails the giraffe fiend. She seems to be growing weary of her role as empress, and starts to travel and write more, isolating herself from the people she fooled. Clearly she has learned all she cared to know about humans, and is now studying elves instead. She also seem to be writting about her kind a lot, so possibly she wonders about what she is, and study other races to understand her existence.

Her last book is a dire tome describing death. This is her longest and most elaborate book. the writing is dire, and dead serious. clearly, legends of dying demons and forgotten beasts, as well as the countless wars she waged, have made her aware of her own mortality. she is mighty, yet after eons of treking the underworld, she has escaped to the material plane and now truly understand the grasp of death. The powers she represents and embodies will soon claim her as well. The age of Myth is coming to a close, and in time, the walking gods and megabeasts will all be forgotten, slain, or sealed off in the depth of the earths. Year after year, she hears of the heroes of Whisperwhip, slowly taking down demons and titans like they were cake.

Maybe this is why she left, and visited the dwarves, whom she must never have seen before, as the Wilted sack is the first group to lay foot on her continent. Everything she did now makes more sence. The way she stared at corpses, looked over destroyed FBs with an eerie glare in her eyes and not a word spoken, how she followed the mayor around and observed his strange mechanical skills at work, never speaking, slowly towering behind him for years on end... Whatever she has seen here, it was enough to give up her empress title for good. Now she has gone on a new journey, perhaps to visit more dwarves, or discover a meaning to her now counted days.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
i lied, there is an eight book by Quula, it's also about the elven lands. but that's not what matters.

Here we have a book by Tikes Tanbanner, which is a kickass name if i ever saw one. He wrote a looot of books on necromancy, death, the tragedy of the human condition, and from what I understand, he was the student of Ohe, the necromancer who raised the elves in the tactical hill. His writing is very personal, full of anecdotes, and filled with melancholy.

Another book you may have noticed on the other screenshot (i mixed a quula and a tikes book up sorry) is called The wizard guide to Extinction. at first it sounds like a tome to learn meteor swarm for high level spellcasters, but it is actually a sad, melancholic tome on the secrets of life and death. given the title, it's fair to assume that altho he mastered necromancy, Tikes Tanbanner did not in any way believe that it could actually repel death forever. His beloved mentor Ohe was himself a necromancer, yet he is now gone from this world.

Reading all this has filled me with an unshakable feeling of dread. I was supposed to be the hero, fighting off the bad guys. The lone, rogue champion battling against tough odds. But the more i read, the more I realise that most of the antagonists I'm facing are better heroes than I am, filled with grief, despair, and tragedy. I'm just a violent asshole with a crossbow and a bad attitude. Something is not wrong with Whisperwhip. The world as a whole feels wrong, and somehow, i was too busy complaining about all those goblins I had to slaughter casually, rob and dump in a huge pile to realize that we are basically the bad guys in this thing, everyone has it worse.

Could this be the real story behind this playtrough?

For long I saw Whisperwhip as a bastion of willpower and strenght, courageous dwarves fighting off armies of invaders and countless beasts. their identity is forged not by their riches, nor their fame, but by the sheer fact that they remain alive to this day. Yet, the fort fails to thrive in areas other than warfare, and as the years pass, the mighty warriors are slowly turning into exiles, fighting a pointless war with no real reason to stay, and nothing to return to. they have come to pray, as have I, for a glorious death, maybe to a dragon or fighting off a zombie invasion. Yet it is the slow, inexorable grind of accident, poor planning, disease and infighting that is slowly bringing the place to it's knees, one stupid death or accident at a time. I have described the fort as the Captain Star of fortresses, and i still believe this is accurate.

Yet when you read this story, or watch the show im referencing, it's easy to just look at the misfortune of those dwarves, or this crew, see them stranded at the edge of the world, and curse the world that has forgotten them. What you don't think about, tho, is that maybe, just maybe, the rest of the world is also having the same problems. The Windy Realm is aptly named, for it is ephemereal and fleeting. In time, it will vanish and die, and so will all those that dwells there. Necromancers master the art of life and death, yet fail to save their loved ones, nor themselves. Heroes fight a battle, only to have their victories robbed from them by time and tragedy. a vampire has gained an extended lifespan, but in doing so, lost the grace of her goddess, and forsake her throne. Even an ancient Archfiend of death, that has been in the underworld for eons, is now realising the futility of existence, and travels the world seeking answers, trying to make sense of it's life.

So what is the point of life on the Windy Realm, then? why do all these characters keep going, despite the failures and the unavoidable ending? Why should the dwarves of Whisperwhip endure, when deep inside, they know that their actions are ultimately futile?

I think Quula, or Ukas, has the right of it, even tho she probably doesn't fully realise it herself. Maybe the true meaning of life isn't the ending, but the journey...
« Last Edit: January 15, 2015, 04:41:53 am by Taupe »
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SkaiaMechanic

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #85 on: January 16, 2015, 08:23:46 pm »

Quula isn't the same black and white villain from over a century ago. Yeah, ruling nations with an iron fist SOUNDS awesome, but when you're stuck in the bureaucracy of day to day living as such, it can wear on you. She is the ruler of people and nations she always wanted to be, the one she made a pact with a god to become, but still finds herself dissatisfied. Most demons would just conclude that more power would be needed for that. But in her travels and occasional genocide, her worldview opened up. Having to act as the goddess of happiness and daydreaming since the beginning of time can change a person. She wanted to know about the world, she wanted to know about herself, and she still wanted to kill a lot of elves. But even that was tainted, as her thrill of crushing armies of elves slowly evolved into begrudging respect for each victory they won. To beat them she had to study them, learn their culture, their tactics and way of life. The battles, victory or defeat, were the most interesting things she could remember. She had strange thoughts about the world, and tried to write them out. About the elves and their homes. About her life as a demon and in the world. About her future and the end to all things.

And then she came to Whisperwhip. Under the pretenses of using these new "Dwarves" and betraying them as she had been doing with the elves for decades, she made her way to the fort. But something had changed. She felt tired...and weak. But she studied the craftdwarves. She saw their plotting and personalities. She saw the rotting Dumporium, filled with carcasses. A few decades back she would have shown off such a scene, towering above the landscape of rotting flesh and bones to let anyone know what lays in store for all who defied her. It would simply associate her with Quula's death and blight connections anyways. But these...these Dwarves...it was just another chore. Not a victory, not a tragedy, it simply was. The Dwarves took the old and smooth bones out of the pile and made small crafts out of them. They weren't laughing at their foe, mocking their grave, they just wanted something interesting from the next caravan that made it to their depot. She saw The Scarred, the Dwarves covered in burns from their necrosis treatment carrying on day to day, not ignorant of their pain, merely accepting it with their duty. She saw masons tell children to do the work for them when they couldn't get the energy to do it themselves. She had personally slaughtered many face-to-face. But what was war here? All that she as a goddess, she as a demon, she as a living being ever associated herself with?

A storm of copper bolts flying out of the wall at once...and then a horde of dwarves running out to pick up the rags of the slaughtered.

And she did not care.

Which, was odd, since she SHOULD HAVE cared. Her heart should beat to the sound of war drums, lungs refueled by the stench of blood and death. But she gazed upon the slaughter and found none of it meaningful anymore. It just was, and that's how the dwarves treated it, having to spend year after year in these conditions. These dwarves that sought neither glory nor death, but simply to stubbornly survive.

And Quula wondered of the reason of every single action she had ever made. And she realizes she is weak.

I wonder what the face of a giraffe demon looks like as it comes to such startling existential crisis.

She couldn't return to her empire. She would desert them, and the humans and slaves would go on without her. They might be happier, they might have a civil war for the void in power she left behind. She didn't care. Whatever happened, happened.

Someday a hero will rise up and slay her like the mighty forgotten beasts in the caverns. It's not a matter of if, but of when. Not in a legendary battle fit for an epic, no. But in a storm of bolts and the picking up of her rags. And then everyone will return to their daily lives.

What did she want to do until then? She didn't know. Nothing seemed to be worth her time anymore.

...but she wanted to find out. She turned to the mayor she had silently followed for two years now.

"It has been an honor. I bid you farewell."



She didn't even bother slaughtering them all on her way out. And as she was leaving, another diplomat entered. A constant cycle.

I wonder what she'd do next?
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I'm running out of dogs. I'm running out of bolts.
I'm running out of dwarves.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #86 on: January 16, 2015, 10:25:22 pm »

Great text, Skaia. That was an awesome study of the character!

Ps: I'll try and proofread and correct typos/mistakes on this monster during the next months. Standardize the chapters and the formatting too, if that's not too much of a chore. It'll take a while, but I feel the early chapters were rushed and could use a few corrections. Hopefully this will make the brick that this thread has become more approachable to new readers. Maybe add a few illustrations to key moments?

In any case, just the intro has been severely updated, to include the names of many important things, including the world, the queen's, the lavender empire, and the founding group of dwarves behind whisperwhip.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2015, 11:07:08 pm by Taupe »
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firsal

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #87 on: January 18, 2015, 03:45:57 am »

Whisperwhip: A fortress so hardcore that it gave a demon from the beginning of time, slaughterer of multitudes, a leader of a great empire, an existential crisis.
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Dwarf4Explosives

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #88 on: January 19, 2015, 03:07:29 pm »

Seriously, this fort is awesome and deserves to be in the hall of fame if it isn't already there.
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And yet another bit of proof that RNG is toying with us. We do 1984, it does animal farm
...why do your hydras have two more heads than mine? 
Does that mean male hydras... oh god dammit.

Taupe

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Re: Whisperwhip: Slowly rotting away...
« Reply #89 on: January 22, 2015, 06:06:02 am »

Quote
Whisperwhip: A fortress so hardcore that it gave a demon from the beginning of time, slaughterer of multitudes, a leader of a great empire, an existential crisis.
Some members of the fortress are not as hardcore as I would hope. Thankfully, this will be fixed soon enough. (or doom us, whichever comes first)

Quote
Seriously, this fort is awesome and deserves to be in the hall of fame if it isn't already there.
Thank you so much! It's always a pleasure to see strangers come out of the shadow to voice their appreciation! As for the hall of fame nomination, I don't think the fort was ever nominated. There is so much text, I'm not really sure how many readers are actually caught up on the story...

The updates should be starting back soon, as I'm done building the new computer. We went from 10 FPS to basically 30 (holy fuck!?!) so expect things to move much faster now! The next chapter, ''Justice is served, supper isn't'' should be ready this weekend. Thank you for bearing with this delay.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2015, 03:40:45 pm by Taupe »
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